Kerri's Portland Trip

From Monday, August 18th through Tuesday August, 26th, I was in Portland, OR. Monday through Friday was work related, touring nurseries and attending the Far West Trade Show with 3 of my co-workers and a couple who own a nursery in New Mexico. The six of us traveled around the Portland area looking at nurseries we've been to before and ones we have never seen in order to see the quality of the plant material and to meet with people face to face, which is somewhat rare in our company since most of our business is conducted on the phone. It is a great opportunity to see what different nurseries are growing, how well they are growing the plants and to pickup new catalogs. It is a once a year trip for us and we always have a great time!

On Friday afternoon, my sister, Kristy, flew in from Chicago to spend the next three and a half days doing some "touristy" stuff with me. Our first night was spent in downtown Portland, so on Saturday we traveled to three of Portland's prettiest gardens, the Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden and the Chinese Garden. All are located in downtown Portland and they are spectacular! At the Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden, we were accompanied by Alicia (who used to work at the same company that I work for) and her co-worker Patrick, who both work for a Landscape Company in New Mexico. It was great to spend time with Alicia and I wish we lived closer together! I had never met Patrick so it was nice not only meeting him but also spending time with him and getting to know him better.

Around noon, Alicia and Patrick had to leave to catch their flight back to NM, so Kristy and I went to Vancouver, WA to check-in to our hotel and to grab a bite to eat. We ate at McMenamin's right along the Columbia River on the WA side. It was so pretty! After that, we headed back in to downtown Portland (only about a 10 minute drive) and went to the Clear Creek Distillery for some liqueur tasting and then to the Chinese Garden. What an awesome day!

On Sunday, we drove back in to downtown and went to the Portland market. We saw quite a bit of the local people while shopping at the various booths. We both found cool things to buy to take home with us. After that we headed west to the coast... travelling from Portland out to Tillamook where we stopped for a quick tour of the cheese factory. From there, we headed up Highway 101 along the Coast until we got to Seaside, OR which was our destination for the night. We ate dinner at a neat, little, seafood restaurant called Norma's and then walked down to the beach and then around the town for a little while, which is filled with all sorts of shops. Monday morning, we headed back to the beach to go to the Seaside Aquarium where we had heard you can feed the seals. Well, that's exactly what we did! The aquarium is rather small and a bit run-down, sadly, but the animals seemed to be well cared for. The seals were Harper seals and they were a riot! You can purchase a small, paper container of fish pieces which you can walk up to the seal tank with and throw over the small fence to feed them. They had a statement there that they seals are well fed, and have two other areas they can go to but they prefer to stay where the people are. None of them are trained by the staff to do tricks and they each have their own personality. Boy, were they right! The bottom part of the fence was covered by a piece of plexiglass, but above that it was just the fence. The seals did all sorts of things to get your attention so that you would toss them a piece of fish. They would take one fin and flop it noisily on the water, they would slide up on the rock and pose, a couple of them made a traditional seal noise, and one of them... he actually took both of his fins with his head up in the air, and pushed water right at you! They were too funny! I had to go back for three helpings of fish because they cracked me up that much!









After the aquarium that day, we drove down to Cannon Beach, OR which is an adorable little beach town with shops, restaurants and great coast access. There is a rock called "Haystack Rock" right on the water and it was HUGE!!! We walked along the beach, looked for seashells and waited for low tide since there is a large tide pool right in front of haystack. It was great to put our feet in the ocean, even though it was a bit chilly, and relax on the beach for a while. Kristy found a small sand dollar on the beach and we saw some fish and a crab in the tide pool but no sea stars on the rocks, unfortunately! After the beach, we ate lunch in Cannon Beach at The Local Grille. Then, we headed out to the Mount Hood area for a little mountain retreat!

We stayed in Welches, OR for our final night. The resort is in need of an update, but it was a beautiful area and it was incredibly peaceful. There was a nice golf course in the area that was part of where we stayed and it was fun to walk around the take in the scenery.

The next morning we ate breakfast at a local restaurant called Roasters. When we were finished, we took a quick stop at one of the nurseries right near Welches that has beautiful gardens surrounding the main office. After that, it was time to head back into Portland, drop off the rental car and hop on the Max to the airport. It was an awesome trip!

When I got home Tuesday night, Ryan and I decided to sneak quietly in the house to surprise the dog since he doesn't always hear us come in. It was great! He ran over, grabbed about 80 of his toys and licked me to death! Later that night, I had all four of the pets right around me as I relaxed from the trip. Needless to say, the pets were happy I was home. I have a feeling Ryan might have been too! :)